Bengals LB Vontaze Burfict shares Steelers’ dirty plays on Twitter

The Steelers were head hunting on Sunday in their season opener against the Browns and Vontaze Burfict wants to make sure everyone knows about it.

by Rebecca Toback@Rebecca_Toback Sep 10, 2017, 9:52pm EDT

Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict is currently at home serving his three-game suspension to open the 2017 NFL season.

Like many NFL fans, Burfict noticed the Pittsburgh Steelers were busy making questionable hits and decision on Sunday in their season opener against the Cleveland Browns. The Steelers came away with a 21-18 win in Cleveland.

One of the above-mentioned plays that Burfict tweeted about was a hit by Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier on Browns quarterback Deshone Kizer. This was a blatant cheap shot and headhunting by Shazier, and not unlike hits we’ve seen from him in the past. (Remember his hit on Giovani Bernard in the Bengals vs Steelers wild card game in January 2016... Yes, it was technically legal, but it was also a cheap shot. OK, now forget about that, because we’ve all had enough Bengals negativity for one day.)

Burfict retweeted this post, which shows the hit:

Burfict’s other tweet was in regards to Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger twisting the ankle of Browns defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah, for no reason other than being dirty.

“Bruhhhh,” Burfict wrote of Roethlisberger’s actions.

There was also this play from Steelers cornerback William Gay, who laid out Browns wide receiver Ricardo Louis with a hit to the head. Burfict must have missed this one...

Will the NFL take notice? Or, will they continue to let the Steelers get a pass?

Steelers cornerback William Gay was flagged for a hit to the head of Browns receiver Ricardo Louis on Sunday, and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin described himself as “irate” about it.

Tomlin said he didn’t necessarily have a problem with the penalty itself, but he was furious that the officials appeared to call the penalty only after they saw a replay of the hit on the stadium’s video board.

“I’m a big player safety guy. I’m on the competition committee,” Tomlin said. “Very rarely are you going to hear arguments from me regarding calls relative to that, provided they are done in real time. I thought they called it off the JumboTron, and I won’t accept that.”

On a conference call today, an NFL spokesman confirmed that officials are not permitted to use the video board in the stadium.

“Officials are all instructed that they are not to use the stadium video boards to aid in officiating in any way,” spokesman Michael Signora said.

It’s unclear whether the officials in the Steelers-Browns game actually did use the video board. If they did, they screwed up — even as Tomlin acknowledges he has no problem with the call they made, only the way they went about it.